Thursday, April 20, 2017

Wacky Watercooler April Blog Hop - Retirement Means Goodbye

It's that time of the year again, where we say goodbye to some of our favourite things from the 2016-2017 Annual Catalogue. It's a sad time for some, but it's also an exciting time for some. Exciting, because it means we will have new stuff to fall in love with!

You may have arrived here from Marie's blog. I'm certain you loved her projects!

This month we are focusing on some of our favourite products that will no longer be available after May 31. There is always shock and surprise among demonstrators when the retirement list is revealed. And this year I had a few moments of shock and surprise. One of those moments was when I realized that the much beloved Gorgeous Grunge set is retiring. This set is, I think one of the first sets Stampin' Up! released that has only images of different textures. So versatile - it could be used on many, many styles of cards.

So, my first project features almost every image from the Gorgeous Grunge set:

I started with a piece of Whisper White cardstock and stamped each of the textures with a different In Color ink from the 2015-2017 collection - also retiring this year. I have to admit that it took me a while to get comfortable with these colours and the only one I will really miss is Tip Top Taupe - it is a great neutral. The other In Colors used here are Mint Macaron and Delightful Dijon. The other colour in this collection is Watermelon Wonder - it just did not fit with this design! For the background images here, I first stamped off once to get a more muted tone.

The leaves and sentiment are from another retiring set, Kinda Eclectic. I used Cucumber Crush, full strength to stamp them. A little bit of Copper Thread is peeking out from behind the banner with the sentiment.

Next up is a set I only recently acquired - Penned & Painted. This set had been on my wishlist ever since the catalogue came out, and finally ordered it. So it was a huge shock to me that it was on the retired list! I really thought it would carry over. I just love the sketchy look of it.

This is a two-step stamp set. One of the things I love about this is that each part of the image can be used by itself, as well as together as I did here.

To do this technique, I first stamped the background image of the flowers with Whisper White Craft ink. It is important to let this dry thoroughly before proceeding to the next step. Once it was dry, I used the wonderful new Watercolour Pencils to colour over the white. Once that was done, I stamped the detailed outline images with Archival Black ink. I love doing this technique on Crumb Cake cardstock, but decided to try it on Tip Top Taupe. Really like the effect!

In the middle of each flower, I did some random white dots using a Posca Paint Pen. To brighten things up a bit more, the smaller little flowers were stamped with Whisper White Craft ink.

A little bit of linen thread is all the embellishment this needed. The sentiment is from another retiring set - Picture Perfect - also a surprise to me! I stamped it with Early Espresso on a piece of Tip Top Taupe and cut it with a banner die from the Project Life Cards & Labels Framelits set. I have used this framelits set a lot - and not for doing memory keeping. It's great to use on cards!

For my third project, I had to stay with Penned & Painted! This time I used another of the flower images, and did the same technique - this time on Crumb Cake cardstock - and coloured all of the blooms with the Pacific Point, Bermuda Bay and Daffodil Delight Watercolour Pencils.

I also used one of the splatter images from Gorgeous Grunge, inked with Crumb Cake ink and stamped off once, to add a bit of texture to the background. To set off the image panel, I used the Basic Black and white striped pattern from the Neutrals Designer Series Paper Stack, which is also retiring.

Although the title of our blog hop this month is Retirement Means Goodbye, I'm really not saying goodbye to any of the products I used here! Since I am primarily a hobby demo, I can keep sets I really love and will use them in my mixed media projects. Mixed media is something I am just getting into, and it's a great way to use a lot of my Stampin' Up stuff. Plus, it's a lot of fun!

Now you are ready to move on to visit Sheri Lee. She has some fabulous things in store for you! Just click on the 'Next' button below.

Gail I'm amazed at the great way you were able to fit in almost all the stamps from Gorgeous Grunge and use the retiring colours in your first card. The sentiment is one of my faves and I'm going to miss the Kinda Eclectic set too. Your second and third cards are beautifully coloured. Great technique. Thanks for sharing.

Gail, I feel your pain. That Penned & Painted set is gorgeous. Love that sketched look. I wish they hadn't retired so many of the really excellent and classic sets. I love the way you combined the images from the Gorgeous Grunge set with some of those from the Kinda Eclectic set. The resulting card really shows off the strength of those images and textures. I expect to keep them in my collection. The colours from the retiring In-Colors which I'll miss most are the Tip Top Taupe and the Mint Macaron. I really love the technique you've used for your floral cards. It's time-consuming but, oh so very stunning.

Beautiful cards, Gail, but I must say, you struck a nerve with your first one--two of my favorite sets and both retiring...I'm so sad. But you did them a great justice with your lovely card. And your painted flowers are gorgeous!

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"This is a personal web site of Gail Allen, an Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, and I am responsible for its content. Stampin' Up! does not endorse the use of or contents of the classes, services, or non-Stampin' Up! products I may offer here."